Thursday, January 5, 2012

Chapter 4. Country-by-country analysis of avoidable mortality in European countries

Chapter 4

Country-by-country analysis of avoidable mortality in European countries

“Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered” )

Julius Caesar 1

“History is a set of lies agreed upon.”

Napoleon Bonaparte 2

“If the public knew the truth, the war would end tomorrow. But they don’t know and they can’t know.”

Lloyd George to Manchester Guardian editor C.P. Scott, 1914 3

“The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.”

George Orwell 4

“I do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Albert Einstein 5

4.1 Introduction – matching excess mortality with foreign occupation

A huge historical work would be required to precisely match post-1950 events with changes in excess mortality and under-5 infant mortality for every country in the world. However it is useful to at least sketch some of the salient events (especially those involving violent foreign occupation of countries) in relation to changes in mortality. In doing so we will again go from the best region to the worst region in a systematic fashion. In Chapters 4-7 “potted histories” are provided to simply and succinctly document the historical background to the glaringly obvious reality described in Chapter 3 of post-war avoidable mortality correlating with violent pre- and post-1950 First World impositions on victim countries. Readers are simply invited to inspect this succinctly presented historical record, assess the excess mortality statistics and then consider their own conclusions.

Of course post-1950 avoidable mortality does not only relate to concurrent foreign occupation of a country - thus prior colonial occupation and the violence of such occupation will have a big impact. By way of example, British occupation of Australia commenced in 1788 and by 1900 the indigenous population had dropped from about 1 million to 90,000 through dispossession, violence and introduced disease. Two centuries after the commencement of this genocide, the indigenous death rate is 3 times greater than in Australia as a whole and this yields an excess mortality of about 4,000 - 8,000 annually. 6

Accordingly, pre-1950 violent foreign occupations over the last half millennium or so are also briefly summarized at the end of each of the snapshot accounts given below, together with (simplified) pre-1950 foreign military presence, post-1950 foreign military occupation, post-1950 foreign military presence and 1950-2005 excess mortality and 1950-2005 under-5 infant mortality in millions (m) and also expressed as percentages (%) of the 2005 population.

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As you go through this sad testimonial in the following 4 Chapters, think of the extreme situations that scientists call the “boundary conditions” i.e. consider the best and the worst outcome countries. Thus the “Overseas European” countries, which have the lowest avoidable mortality, have not been occupied by foreigners ever, let alone in the post-1950 era – and, conversely, have all invaded and occupied non-European countries during that era. At the other extreme, nearly all of the countries of non-Arab Africa have been subject to violent European occupation for a substantial part of the post-1950 era, none have invaded non-contiguous states and nearly all continue to suffer horrendous avoidable mortality.

Specifically, the democratic state of Israel has not ever been occupied by foreign forces since independence, but has militarily attacked 10 other countries, has violently occupied 5 of them for substantial periods, continues to occupy 2 of them and has one of the best excess mortality outcomes; the entry below for Israel concludes thus (m = million): foreign occupation: none (pre-1950); none (post-1950); post-1950 foreign military presence: none; 1950-2005 excess mortality/2005 population = 0.095m/6.685m = 1.4%; 1950-2005 under-5 infant mortality/2005 population = 0.091m/6.685m = 1.4%. At the other extreme, Timor Leste was occupied bybrutal colonial powers both before and after 1950, has attacked no other country and has one of the very worst excess mortality outcomes: foreign occupation: Portugal, Japan (pre-1950);Portugal, Indonesia (post-1950); post-1950 foreign military presence: Portugal, Indonesia, UN peace-keeping forces; 1950-2005 excess mortality/2005 population = 0.0.694m/0.857m = 81.0%; 1950-2005 under-5 infant mortality/2005 population = 0.236m/0.857m = 27.5%.

4.2 Overseas Europe – internal democracy, external violence

After the victory of the Allies over the Axis powers in World War 2 (WW2) there was a major shift of global power from Western Europe to the US and the USSR (the Russian Empire). The Anglo-Celtic countries of Overseas Europe (Australia, New Zealand and Canada) continued their close military and intelligence association with the US and the new state of Israel has become the key US-backed satellite in the Middle East. All of these societies have a blind-spot in common with the people of their patron and ally, the US – an inability to see the immense world-wide carnage in which they have variously been complicit in the post-war era. Briefly outlined below are the stories of some of the world’s most prosperous, healthy and aggressive societies.

Australia:inhabited by indigenous people for some 50,000 years before European invasion; 17th century, Portuguese, Spanish,British and Dutch explorers (named New Holland); 1642, Tasman discovered Tasmania (Van Dieman’s Land); 1770, Cook explored and claimed Australia; 1788, penal settlement at Port Jackson (Sydney); 1803, settlement of Tasmania; 19th century, agriculture initially using convict labour; Merino sheep introduced for wool; later pastoralists used aboriginal labour; Melanesian slaves (Kanakas) brought to Queensland sugar cane plantations; violent genocide and introduced disease reduced the indigenous Australian population from about 0.75 million to 0.1 million in 100 years; indigenous populations also declined catastrophically in New Zealand and the Pacific;mid-19th century, gold rushes opened up Victoria; other colonies were founded; 1901, Federation of the States as independent Australia; commencement of the racist White Australian Policy; 19th-20th century, mostly Anglo-Celtic Australians actively participated in British wars, namely the Sudan Campaign, the Boer War,WW1 (notably in France, Palestine and Gallipoli in Turkey), WW2 (thefall of Singapore- with 8,000 out of 22,000 Australian prisoners of war dying in captivity – and the crucial US war effort led to victory over the Japanese and to ANZUS, the post-war Australian and New Zealand alliance with the US); post-war,mass immigration from Europe; participation in UK and/or US wars, namely the Malaya Emergency, Korean War, Confrontation with Indonesia, Indo-China War, Gulf War, Iraq Sanctions, Iraq War and Afghanistan War; 1967, “legitimation” of aborigines as citizens to be counted and covered by federal laws; late 1960s, cessation of an extensive genocidal policy of child-removal from aboriginal mothers; 1973, White Australia Policy effectively revoked by anti-racism legislation; 1975, conservative, pro-US Governor-General dismissed the elected Labor Government;1975, Papua New Guinea independence; assisted PNG forces in Bougainville; peacekeeping troops to East Timor; Australian military to the Solomon Islands; 21st century, continuing prosperity but one of the oldest continuing democracies brought in imprisonment without charge for refugees (indefinite) and for terrorism-related suspects (2 week stretches). Australia is the big country with the highest annual per capita carbon dioxide pollution, the world’s biggest coal exporter and refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol or reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

New Zealand: 1000AD, settled by Polynesian Maoris from Pacific Polynesia; 1642-1643, Dutch Tasman discovery; 1769-1770, Cook exploration; 1792-1849, European settlements for sealing and whaling; 1815-1840, tens of thousands died in intertribal wars; 1840, settlement of Wellington by Wakefield’s New Zealand Company; separated from New South Wales (Australia); Treaty of Waitangi with Maoris;British settlement; 1860-1872, British-Maori Wars, indigenous defense (notably pa earth defenses); the Maori population dropped from 0.1-0.2 million in 1800 to 42,000 in 1893, mostly through disease, dispossession and war; 1852, self-government; 1907, independent as Dominion of New Zealand; 1947, final separation from UK by confirming the1931 Statute of Westminster; New Zealand participation in Anglo-American Wars including WW1, WW2, Korean War, Vietnam War and Gulf War and member of ANZUS treaty with Australia and the US; 1986, ANZUS suspended after New Zealand opposition to visits by US nuclear-armed ships; opposition to French nuclear tests (Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior sunk by French agents); did not join the US invasion of Iraq.

Canada: pre-colonial Inuit and Amerindians from about 15,000BC; about 1000, Vikings settled transiently in Vinland (Eastern Canada); 1497, English Cabot landed; 1534, Cartier claimed Canada for France; 1605, French settlement at Port Royal (Annapolis Royal); 1608, French founded Québec; 1629, 1632 British captured and then lost Québec; 1670, British Hudson’s Bay Company formed; 18th century, world-wide Anglo-French wars; 1759, 1760, Québec and Montréal fell to the British; 1763, Treaty of Paris, Louisiana went to Spain and East of the Mississippi to Britain; 1775, US invasion of Canada repulsed; 1784, New Brunswick created for loyalists; 1791, separation of Ontario (Upper Canada) and Québec (Lower Canada); 1789-1793, Mackenzie explored to the Arctic and Pacific regions; War of 1812, US invasion repulsed; 1846, Oregon boundary finalized; 1867, federation of the Canadian Provinces; Canadian participation in WW1, WW2 and the Korean, Gulf and Afghanistan Wars; 1949, joined NATO;1960s onwards, increasing French separatism (provocative “Québec libre” call by Charles De Gaulle of France); maple leaf flag; bilingualism encouraged; 1992, Charlottetown Accord to pacify separatism; 1998, apology to indigenous people; 1999, large Inuit territory of Nunavut granted; 1994, North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada,the US and Mexico; 2001, Canada in Afghanistan War but not in the subsequent Iraq War.

United States of America: 15,000 BC, Mongoloid Amerindians; 1492, Columbus discoveries; 16th century, European invasion and settlement; 1565, Spanish settled in Florida and thence in the South West and California; French settlement at Quebec, Montreal and Louisiana; 1607, English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia; 1620, Plymouth settlement by the Pilgrim Fathers; 17th-19th century, African slave trade and the plantation economy in the South; 1775-1783, American Revolution against Britain under Washington; Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence (equality of man and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness); American constitution, democracy and the rule of law; independence from Britain also allowed genocidal invasion of Indian lands to the West; 1803, Louisiana Purchase from France; 1812, War with Britain; 1812, Monroe Doctrine opposing European interference in the Americas; 1819, Florida obtained from Spain; Westward spread with extermination of Indians through disease, dispossession and violence; 1836-1846, settlement of Texas and war with Mexico culminating in acquisition of Texas, the Southwest and California; 1853, Gadsden Purchase and acquisition of the Northwest; 1848, California gold rush; 1861-1865, Civil War between pro-slavery Southern Confederacy and the industrial, abolitionist North under Lincoln; defeat of the South but retention of de facto suppression of Afro-Americans for over a century; late 19th century, Westward expansion andfinal dispossession of Indians; acquisition of Hawaii (1898) and American Samoa (1899); 1898, Spanish-American War with acquisition of Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Philippines and Latin American hegemony; early 20th century, US imperialism rampant: 1899-1902, Philippines War (1 million Filipinos died), Panama Canal, US-controlled Canal Zone and repeated military interventions in Panama (1864-1989), Cuba (1898-1920), Dominican Republic (1916-1934), Haiti (US occupation forces 1919-1934) and Nicaragua (1912-1915); WW1 (1917-1818); “acquired” the Virgin Islands from Denmark (1917); between-wars depression, prohibition, gangsterism, Roosevelt New Deal and a massive international arms race; WW2 (militarist Imperial Japan squeezed into war; US pre-knowledge of Japanese attack realized at Pearl Harbor; industrial warfare; high-gear commencement of the highly profitable military-industrial complex, total air war against civilians e.g. Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden); post-war economic, cultural and military domination of world by an immensely rich, technologically-advanced USA; 1970s, improved Afro-American civil rights; 1990s, final victory over the USSR in the Star Wars segment of the post-war Cold War that had involved megaton hydrogen bombs, ICBMs, nuclear-armed submarines, nuclear “Mutually Assured Destruction” (MAD) and East- and West-supported armed conflicts throughout the world; major post-war invasions and occupations: Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam War (1954-1975), Dominican Republic (1965), Cuba (1961; economic sanctions, 1964-present), El Salvador (US-backed coup, death squads and civil war, 1972-1992, 30,000 killed), Guatemala (via US-armed and backed military from Honduras, 1954-1990, 0.5 million refugees), Nicaragua (via US-armed and backed Contras from Honduras, 1982-1990), Panama (1989), Grenada (1983), Columbia (US military involvement in the civil war since 1964), Afghanistan (Soviet invasion and US-backed resistance and civil war, 6.3 million deaths), Afghanistan (2001- present), Iran (overthrow of democracy, 1953-1979; military raid, 1979; backing Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War, 1979-1988, 1.5 million dead), Iraq Gulf War and Sanctions war (1990-2003; 1.7 million deaths), Iraq War (2003- March 2007 1.0 million avoidable deaths); 1994, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, US and Canada; 2001, 9/11 atrocity and subsequent post-Reichstag-style, open-ended “War on Terror”; 2001-March 2007, 2.4 million post-invasion excess deaths in Afghanistan War; 2003-March 2007, 1.0 million post-invasion excess deaths in Iraq War; 2005, Hurricane Katrina further exposed US establishment callousness to the massive underprivileged population; 2001-2005, 50,000 US opioid drug deaths linked to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed opium industry in Afghanistan.

Western Europe generally has essentially the same level of prosperity and survivability as the Overseas European countries. However while none of the Overseas European countries have ever been occupied, all Western European countries (with the exceptions of Ireland, Britain, Portugal, Spain and Sweden) have suffered from foreign occupation within the last 60 years i.e. within one human lifetime. However universal domestic peace and high technology have enabled auto-compounding prosperity. This prosperity has also been associated in many cases with past imperialism and colonialism that has variously spilled over into the post-1950 era. WW1 took some 16 million lives (9 million military and 7 million civilian). WW2 took some 35 million lives in Europe. Nazi racism, disregard and mass murder resulted in 6 million deaths in Poland and 20 million deaths in the Soviet Union. The Nazis deliberately exterminated about 0.5 million Gypsies (Rom) and over 5 million Jews (a further 1 million Jews dying from deprivation). Estimates by Gilbert (1969) of the numbers of Jews killed out of the Jewish population left in 1941 are included in the relevant entries below e.g. the murder of 60,000 out of 70,000 Austrian Jews is denoted as 60,000/70,000. 6

Post-war, the Marshall Plan permitted reconstruction, NATO provided security and the rise and continuing extension of the European Union (EU) finally provided sanity in a continent that had seen 2 catastrophic world wars in one century. Major colonial powers surrendered their empires (while retaining neo-colonial economic hegemony in many cases). The hope that the world had seen the end of European colonial wars was dashed by Anglo-American interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan with the active (if token) support of many Western European and Eastern European countries. Thus, as with the Overseas European countries, for many Western European countries (with the notable exceptions of Switzerland, Austria, Ireland and Greece) internal decency was coupled with criminal support for military violence in a distant land.

Belgium: 1st century BC, Celtic Belgae tribe conquered by Romans; 3rd century, Franks invaded; 9th-12th century, part of Charlemagne’s empire (Christian), Lotharingia and thence Lower Lorraine; 12th century, medieval Duchies of Brabant and Luxembourg and Bishopric of Liège; 15th century -18th century, Burgundian rule followed successively by Spanish and Austrian Hapsburg rule; 1797, French rule; 1815, Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon defeated by an Anglo-Prussian coalition; Belgium became part of the Netherlands through the Congress of Vienna; 1830, language and religious concerns led to Belgian rebellion; 1838-1839, London Conference finalized peace and Belgian independence under Leopold I (from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha); mid-19th century-early 20th century, industrialization; brutal exploitation of the Belgian Congo – 10 million Congolese died from Belgian rubber collection and relatedatrocities;1914-1918, WW1, nearly all of Belgium occupied by the Germans; 1919, Belgian mandate over Ruanda and Burundi in former German East Africa; 1921, Belgium-Luxembourg economic association; 1939-1945, WW2, German occupation; Leopold III surrender; 28,000/85,000Jews killed; final German counter-offensive in the Battle of the Bulge; 1950, compromised Leopold IIIreturned and abdicated in 1951; 1958, Benelux Union with Netherlands and Luxembourg; EU foundation; Brussels seat of EU bureaucracy and NATO headquarters; 1960, Congo independence but followed by 2 decades of French and Belgian military intervention; 1970s-1990s, ethnic tensions involving French, Flemish and German groups were resolved by autonomy arrangements.

Luxembourg: major medieval and Holy Roman Empire duchy with rulers variously from Bohemia, Burgundy and the Hapsburgs of Austria and Spain; 1797, French occupation; 1814-1815, Congress of Vienna, grand duchy in union with Netherlands but simultaneously a member of the German Confederation with Prussian occupation; 1830-

1839, joined Belgian revolt against the Netherlands; a large part became part of Belgium; 1866-1867, sale to France by Netherlands William III provoked Franco-Prussian crisis; Prussians left; Luxembourg declared neutral; 1890, no male heir of William III; Grand Duke Adolph succeeded; WW1 and WW2, occupied by Germany; 1946, joined UN; 1949, joined NATO; 1958, joined with Belgium and Netherlands in Benelux Union; founding member of EEC (EU).

Norway: 9th–11th century, Norsemen raided Western Europe; the Shetlands, Orkneys, Iceland, Greenland and coastal Britain and France under Norse rule; 14th century-18th century, Norway ruled by Denmark; 1814, British defeated the Danes and Norway united with Sweden; 19th century, major migration to the US, shipping expansion and growing nationalism; 1905, overwhelming plebiscite vote and separation from Sweden as a democratic monarchy; WW1, neutral; the period between wars saw increased social welfare; 1940-1945, German conquest and rule by Quisling; 1992, international controversy over Norwegian whaling; 1972 and 1994, rejection of EU association; 2003, joined US Coalition in Iraq.

United Kingdom: prehistoric Neolithic culture; 5th century BC, Celtic metallurgical culture; 54BC-2nd century AD, Roman conquest; 410, Roman withdrawal; 5th century, Germanic Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded; Christianizing; 8th–9th century, Norse Viking raids; Vikings notably opposed by King Alfred; 1016, King Canute (Knut) ruled both England and Denmark; 1066, Norman conquest under William the Conqueror; 1171, Norman invasion of Ireland; 1215, nobles constrained arbitrary royal power by Magna Carta; 13th century, invasions of Wales and Scotland; 1237-1337, Hundred Years War with France; 1348, devastating Black Death (plague); 14th century, Wars of the Roses culminating in Tudor rule of Henry VII and administrative sharpening; Henry VIII confiscated Church lands and instituted Protestant Reformation; Elizabeth I, consolidation of Protestantism; defeat of Spanish Armada (1588); commencement of maritime exploration and American settlements; founding of British East India company (1600); 17th century, Stuart period; conflict with Parliament; English Civil War between Puritans and Royalists; Charles I beheaded; habeus corpus and increased Parliamentary power; Cromwell republic and atrocities in Ireland; restoration of Charles II but defeatof Catholic James II by William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne (1689); 18th century, Britain emerged as a major world power; 1707, act of union with Scotland; Hanoverian succession; 1701-1714, War of the Spanish Succession against France; 1756-1763, Seven Years War against France left Britain the dominant colonial power in North America and India; African slave trade; 1745, Scots finally defeated at the Battle of Culloden – last battle on British soil; 1757, Bengal conquered and rapaciously taxed; 1769-1770, Bengal famine killed 10 million; 1776, American independence; 1788, settlement of Australia;19th century, Napoleonic Wars with defeat of Napoleonic France at Trafalgar under Nelson (1805) and finally at Waterloo under Wellington (1815); industrialization fed by Empire; further conquest in India, Africa,Asia, and the Pacific; 1845-1850, Irish famine (1 million dead; 1.5 million fled overseas), Indian cholera epidemics (25 million victims) and famines (tens of millions of victims); 1854-1856, Crimean War with Russia; Queen Victoria and the British empire; late 19th century, conquest of Southern Africa and victory over the Dutch Afrikaaners in the Boer War; 20th century, arms race; 1914-1918, WW1, horrendous casualties, Austro-Hungarian and Turkish Empires dismembered; post-war, Irish independence; womens’ suffrage; oil and British power in the Middle East; 1929, Wall Street collapse followed by depression and European re-armament; 1939-1945, WW2, Nazism eventually defeated, Europe temporarily wrecked; Eastern Europe enslaved by Russia; post-war, British technological advance, welfare state, civil nuclear power and nuclear arms; UN and decolonization; colonial andneo-colonial Asian and African wars; 1982, Falklands Island War against Argentinian invaders; increasing political conservatism under Thatcher (Thatcherism) and then under right-wing Labor under Blair; decades of IRA terrorism in Ulster and England followed by political accommodation; UK-US democratic imperialism and invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan; 2005, IRA disarmament; Muslim-origin London bombings followed by strengthened anti-terror laws.

4.4 Eastern Europe – Communism, foreign occupation and tyranny but peace and good social services

Aside from Muslim Albania and the major Muslim populations of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Bulgaria and the Kosovo region of Serbia-Montenegro, the formerly Communist-ruled Eastern European group countries (conveniently including Armenia and Georgia for the purposes of this analysis) have a Christian background. Eastern European nationalist desires that surged in the 19th century were largely thwarted by the Turkish, German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires but realized in some cases (Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia) between WW1 and WW2. The cataclysm of WW2 destroyed the Jewish populations of Eastern Europe, and killed some 20 million Soviet citizens and 6 million Poles. Red Army victory delivered all these countries to Russian Communist control – with the exceptions of Albania and Yugoslavia, which nevertheless were ruled by Communist regimes. The collapse of Communism in 1989-1991 finally led to self-determination for the Eastern European peoples under relatively democratic systems but with perturbations ranging from electoral fraud to civil war in the Balkans, Moldova and Chechnya. The post-war Communist system provided good education, health and full employment coupled with repression and eventual economic decline and crisis. Actual Soviet military intervention occurred in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968). The welfare state circumstances produced avoidable mortality outcomes that were good by world standards but not as good as those obtaining in Western Europe. Indeed in some Eastern European countries (notably Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Russia and the Ukraine and also in Germany and Austria, countries which were subject to partial post-war Soviet occupation) there were small but marked elevations in excess mortality from about 1970 onwards that may possibly be linked to smoking, alcoholism, pollution, non-reported radiological contamination and tensions of life in repressed societies. 8

Slovakia: 5th-6th century AD, Slavic settlement; 9th century, part of Moravia and Christianized; 10th century, Magyar (Hungarian) conquest; 10th century-1918, major Hungarian domination; 1526, Turkish victory over the Hungarians at Mohács; Slovakia came under greater Hungarian and Austrian Habsburg control; 19th century, increasing Magyarization and increased Slovak nationalism; 1920-1938, Slovakia (with a big Hungarian minority) was a province of Czechoslovakia; 1938-1944, largely Catholic Slovakia was an autonomous state of Czechoslovakia under Catholic Father Tiso during German occupation; extermination of Jews and Gypsies; 1944, liberated by USSR; 1945, again a province of Czechoslovakia; 1948, Communist government in Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia; 1968, Soviet invasion to crush the Dubček-led “Prague Spring”; 1969, increased autonomy; 1989, fall of Communism; 1993, independent Slovakia; 2003, joined US Coalition in Iraq; 2004, became a member of NATO and of the EU.

Slovenia: Illyrian and Celtic tribes; 1st century BC, Roman Pannonia and Panicum; 6th century AD, Slav Sarno society; 788, conquered by Franks; Christianized under Charlemagne;843, under Bavaria; 1335-1918, Carinthia, Carniola and Styria regions part of Austria; 1918, part of Yugoslavia; 1939-1945, WW2; 1941, divided between Italy, Germany and Hungary; 1945, part of Yugoslavia; 1990, elected non-Communist government under Kučan; 1991, declared independence; Yugoslav forces entered for several weeks and then withdrew; “money for blood” Yugoslav debt reconciliation deal brokered by Austria; 2004, member of NATO and the EU.

Europe was successively settled by Celtic and Germanic tribes. Early sophisticated urban civilizations flourished in Mediterranean Italy, Spain and Greece. Western and Southern Europe were incorporated into the Roman Empire which finally succumbed to Germanic invaders. Slavic invaders occupied most of Eastern Europe with particular areas dominated by Letts, Wends, Estonians, Finns and Hungarians. Muslim Moorish civilization flowered in Spain. Charlemagne forcibly spread Christianity to Central Europe. Norse invaders from Scandinavia impacted on Britain, Ireland, France, Italy and Russia. The so-called Dark Ages led to a prosperous Medieval period that was temporarily crushed by the Black Death 25 million deaths). Constantinople and the Balkans fell to the Ottoman Turks with the consequent cultural Renaissance in the West and ultimately the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. Major Medieval and Renaissance states included England, France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire (variously including Spain, the Netherlands, German states, Bohemia, Austria and Hungary), the Italian city states, the Hanseatic League, Denmark-Sweden, Poland-Lithuania and Russia.

After the expulsion of the Moors, Spain and Portugal variously invaded the Americas, Africa and South East Asia. Britain and France consolidated and colonized North America. The decimation of indigenous Indian populations in the Americas was followed by importation of African slaves. Holland seized the East Indies, Britain defeated the French and took India, Canada and Australia. The independent United States seized the American West and incorporated French and Spanish North American possessions. The 19th century saw the final carve up of Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Russian expansion into Central Asia, Latin American independence and ultimately US hegemony over South and Central America and the Caribbean. The Enlightenment and the industrial revolution were followed by increasing liberal and nationalist sentiment in the 19th century.

The catastrophe of WW1 led to the Russian revolution and transient independence for Eastern European countries. The German Nazis conquered most of Europe, killed 6 million Jews and 20 million Russians but were finally defeated after the industrially-dominant US entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Post-war, Western Europe re-built and finally consolidated peacefully and rationally into the European Economic Community (EEC) and thence the European Union (EU). Eastern Europe had nearly half a century under Communism with all but Albania and Yugoslavia under Soviet hegemony behind the Iron Curtain. Western European countries formally surrendered their colonial empires after a short era of colonial wars. However the US exercised military power globally with major Asian wars and occupations, Latin American invasions, surrogate violence and Cold War African conflicts. Other Overseas European countries variously participated in the Asian wars of the US Empire and Israeli colonialism involved repeated wars with its neighbours. US victory over Russia in the Arms Race and the incipient Star Wars led to the collapse of Communism, freedom for Eastern European and Central Asian republics and domination of the world by an increasingly violent and unilateralist US. Violent world domination by the “democratic imperialism” of US Empire is in marked contrast to the immediately post-WW2 era of UN oversight of a peaceful world.

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